Despite the best efforts of software developers, software programs inevitably fail at one time or another. One type of failure is a crash. A crash occurs while a program module is running and results in the suspension of operation of the program module. Crashes are frustrating to users and, in some cases, may cause the user to lose work. Another type of software program failure is a set-up failure. Set-up failures occur during installation of a program module onto a user's computer. Set-up failures may prevent certain aspects of the program module, or even the entire program module, from being installed on a user's computer.
Crashes and set-up failures create a significant amount of work for product support personnel. Product support personnel, typically contacted via telephone, are often limited in their ability to diagnose problems due to the limited amount of information they can receive from the user. For example, the product support personnel may only know what the user was doing when the crash occurred or at what point of the installation the set-up failure occurred. There may be a significant amount of information on the user's computer that may be useful to the product support personnel or to the software developers to diagnose the failures. However, because product support personnel and the software developers are not physically present at the user's computer, this information can not be extracted and analyzed.
Thus, there is a need for a method and system for extracting from a computer relevant information regarding a failure of a program module, including the location of the failure, and transmitting this information to a software manufacturer so, that the failure may be diagnosed and corrected. There is also a need for a method and system for requesting information from a failed program module, in addition to the location of the failure, and transmitting this additional information to a central repository for storage and analysis.
In developing such a method and system for reporting failures in a program module, there is a need for a method and system for categorizing failures to differentiate between separate failures. One way to differentiate between separate failures is to transmit and analyze massive amounts of data regarding a failure. However, sending massive amounts of data regarding a failure to a server is extremely inefficient and virtually impossible. For example, it is important that a lot of failure data not be transmitted to the server because many users will transmit the data via modems, etc. taking a lot of time to upload. Thus, there is a need for a method and system for categorizing failures using a minimal amount of uploadable data, while still differentiating between separate failures.